Comments for Montoliu: Profit is the name of the game at http://lakeconews.com , comment 1 to 5 out of 5 comments http://lakeconews.com Sun, 21 Mar 2010 04:52:04 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.2 http://lakeconews.com/content/view/10472/925/#comment-15333 RM, very well put. - Donna Christopher Fri, 25 Sep 2009 17:43:06 +0100 http://lakeconews.com/content/view/10472/925/#comment-15328 Many have have commented, indeed written long outraged articles, on the problem. The problem is obvious. The reason it continues is because so few are working on effective strategies to turn things around. - Dante Fri, 25 Sep 2009 12:38:42 +0100 http://lakeconews.com/content/view/10472/925/#comment-15323 we're still following a couple of outdated and pernicious pieces of advice: “Sell the sizzle, not the steak.” Marketing guru Elmer Wheeler, circa 1938. An inspiration for the Mad Men “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.” -- Adolf Hitler's minister of propaganda - Grace OMalley Fri, 25 Sep 2009 10:51:52 +0100 http://lakeconews.com/content/view/10472/925/#comment-15322 I've been impressed by many of Raphael Montoliu's commentaries, but this is the best one yet. Mr. Montoliu, you have hit the nail precisely and eloquently on the head. Among the most brainwashed foot-soldiers of the Corporatocracy are so-called "Libertarians" who do not grasp the most elemental principal driving the business world: Competition is Bad for Profits. The religious belief that de-regulation will lead to a "free market" and promote a sounder economy is utterly false, and hopelessly naive. Look at insurance -- massive buy-outs have reduced the field of competition steadily during the past several decades, while profits for the remaining few insurance companies have soared almost 500%. Look at Monsanto -- massive buy-outs have allowed it to acquire 80% of the seed market, so now they can raise prices 42% and farmers have no choice but to pay the higher prices, because who else can they buy from...? And so it goes. The business of business is to increase profits, period. Competition keeps prices lower, so the way to maximize profits is to eliminate the competition (so consumers will have no choices). That is the single most elementary rule of economics. But Libertarians don't get it. They want to give the whole system over to the foxes. Heaven help us hens. Teddy Roosevelt said "Big business needs big government" because common people don't have any other means to protect them from being exploited by powerful business interests. Today's fanatical right-wing-nut foot-soldiers have helped dismantle (through their naive support of anti-democratic, pro-corporate policies) systems and checks that were put in place after the Great Depression for the purpose of preventing the foxes from being given complete run of the henhouses. Limbaugh, Beck, Fox News, et al, are promoting beliefs and actions gauranteed to end the existence of an American Middle Class, and to render 95% of the citizens of the USA into permanent Third World status. But no matter how bad it gets, here, those same delusional right-wingnuts will still be chanting "America is Number One!" and threatening to beat up anyone who attempts to apply critical thinking to the equation. So far as quality-of-life concerns go, we're already near-bottom in most world-wide Industrialized Nation rankings, but we could be ranked dead last, and those nuts will still believe we have it better than anyone else, because their brains are closed to reality. The happy residents of "socialist" nations in Europe will be living 100 times better than the average American, but such mere facts bounce off wingnuts like water off a duck. Wingnuts live in their own little insular fantasy world, so they will never be capable of understanding how bad it really is here. There was a great quote in a documentary about student unrest in the 1960's, in which a now-middle-aged former "radical" explained his involvement in protests twenty years before. Paraphrasing from memory, it went something like this: "I was raised to believe that America was the best and fairest nation on earth, and that we Americans were the most free. When I got older and went out into the world, I found that in reality, America fell far short of the ideals of my youth. But that doesn't mean that we cannot make this a better country. That's why I got involved -- to help make America become the great nation I was raised to believe she was." That is the very big difference between "the left" and "the right." The "right" refuses to see reality, prefers to keep the status quo (thus supporting the corporate power structure) while ignoring America's ills. The "left" sees the disparity between America's idealized self-image and the harsh reality, and seeks to find ways to make America live up to her own exaulted self-image. While the "right" shuts its eyes, covers its ears and shouts "We're Number One!" over and over again, the "left" sees (and is not afraid to admit) that there is room for improvement. - Baxter Fri, 25 Sep 2009 10:11:15 +0100 http://lakeconews.com/content/view/10472/925/#comment-15307 The fact was those that were to keep a eye on the "wall streeters" was taking money from them and there in office as of yet.Greed from them on the inside and on the outside. - James Fri, 25 Sep 2009 05:00:34 +0100